"You are unprepared to be on your own. Your deductive powers are a gift from God or chance or [specialized] sperm or whatever or whoever wrote your life script; a gift not earned. You do not know what I know because you have not earned those powers. You’re careless with those powers; you flaunt them and you throw them around like a brat with his trust fund you haven’t had to climb up all the greasy little rungs. You haven’t been bored blind at the fundraisers, you haven’t done the time in that first marriage to the girl with the right father; you think you can leap over all in a single bound; you haven’t had to bribe or charm or threaten your way to a seat at that table. You don’t know how to assess your competition because you haven’t competed. Don’t make me your competition. "
-Robert DeNiro's character advice to the newbie trader on how to succeed on Wall Street and in the corporate world in Limitless (2011)
Oh yes, not only do men cheat, bribe, charm and threaten their way into success, they also marry into wealth, using their wives with powerful fathers to position them in the right place, so they can be what they always wanted to be; those ambitious social climbers who are finally listed in the Forbes publication as the richest Americans in the country.
However, an ambitious woman? She's pure evil. Here is a recent excerpt from a Forbes article entitled Views From an Alpha Male that describes what he views as a problem with some ambitious women in his field. The writer of the articles writes:
“I find it unsettling. A woman who promotes herself in this way may be masking incompetence or inexperience.”
Women who are smart, ambitious and competent in the corporate world are viewed by such men as "incompetent and inexperienced" or simply "flirtatious". Who knows what flirtatious means here? A smile? Being friendly? Grabbing your penis? The author writes:
“And the moment they realize you are not the person who can help them advance, you can feel their attention drift off immediately.”
One had to wonder here, if the interviewee was just looking for a date or at a work networking event? Was this man making a commentary about women in the workplace- namely in his company, or was he talking about random wannabe models he met on the street, and they turned their attention away from him when they realised he wasn't a modeling agent? Which field did this man work in? Fashion? Porn? Who knows what the context of what "some women" he is referring to here; but the lesson seems clear, men are allowed to be "boys". They can cheat, threaten, buy that board seat, and marry his first wife just because she was well-connected, and he will never be told:
"Hey dude, you're just an incompetent douchebag!"
But God forbid, a woman with social skills, who is good at connecting people, and who loves her career and is damned good at it, is somehow, undeserved, because she might be pretty, and pretty women are always evil; yes, evil women are flirtatious, even if they are just being friendly. A smile is the sign of an evil, flirtatious woman! Damn those extraverted, socially adept women! They are evil!
On a serious note though, there is something to be said about authenticity. If you're an A-lister in Hollywood, most likely you'll never like going to a networking event because of all the sycophants in the room; similarly if you're a Venture Capitalist, you don't want to hear another pitch from someone you just met; likewise, if you're a Managing Director at one of Wall Street's largest firms, you don't want some asshole trying to sell you his latest algo. According to several friends of mine from Los Angeles who work in the film industry: You learn real quick [sic] who are the biters and the barkers. Biters are the ones who do; barkers are the ones who talk incessantly about the doing, but never do so and instead spend 10 years or so having lunch with everyone, never creating a product, or a film or executing an idea. There are a lot of barkers in LA, and everywhere else in the world. What else is new?
But, if a woman is a biter, obviously she is "masking incompetence" is "flirtatious" and a "social climber". Truth is, women are intimidating to most men. Hell, women even hate most other women. But let's face it, if a woman succeeds on Wall Street and in the corporate world, it is because she is fucking good at what she does. She didn't sleep her way to the top, she didn't marry into the right family, she didn't cheat, nor bribe, nor threaten to get that board seat. She did it because she knew the right people. She most likely had a circle of advisors. She had friends in high places. She didn't fucking prostitute herself nor sleep with the board director to get her job; she didn't marry some guy because his family owned half of California or New Jersey; she did it through her sheer ambition, her social skills, and through the support of her network of friends and family. And she got there because she was fucking competent.
So what the hell is wrong with that?
